TWO of South Cumbria's most popular restaurants have won acclaim in this year's Travellers' Choice Awards after being named in the top ten restaurants in the UK. 

Celebrated fine-dining eatery, L'Enclume, was named as the fourth best-rated restaurant in the UK and came in at number 14 for the whole of Europe. 

The Old Stamp House, in Ambleside, was also voted in the top ten UK restaurants and came in at number eight. 

The restaurant rankings come from travel review site, TripAdvisor, which has drawn up the list of fine dining establishments according to the millions of restaurant reviews published by users.

Sam Ward, operations manager at L'Enclume, said: "We are incredibly proud of all of the awards that we have won here at L'Enclume and we do what we do to make people happy and the recognition from TripAdvisor is a sign of that.

"Generally our guests come to the restaurant to escape for a day or two which gives us an opportunity to create an incredibly relaxed environment for people to enjoy themselves”

"TripAdvisor provides people the chance to air their views, we didn't ask people to write these reviews, somebody has to really go out of their way to write something good which is encouraging for everyone here."

Ryan Blackburn, co-owner of The Old Stamp House Restaurant was also excited to be included in the top ten restaurants in the UK.

Mr Blackburn said: “Since opening the restaurant eighteen months ago, we have used TripAdvisor as a resource to listen to our customers, which in turn has helped us to learn and develop.

“We are delighted to be named eighth best rated restaurant in the UK in the Travellers’ Choice Awards and we would like to thank all our customers who have taken the time to review us.”